Elevator Pitch Proposals

How should you structure your minute-long elevator pitch? Since you have so little time, you need to depend on strong delivery, great organization, vivid diction, and carefully considered topics for analysis to present to your audience. You have lots of flexibility, of course, but you might want to try this general approach:

ATTENTION GETTER

This could be a startling claim, a powerful sentiment, vivid language, a compelling scenario, or a question put to your audience that gets them interested in your artifact or the rhetorical situation out of which it emerged. Whatever you do, it needs to set up your discussion of your proposed topic fast.

ELABORATE ON THE PURPOSE OF THE PIECE AND THE RHETORICAL SITUATION

This is when you identify the basics of your artifact, explaining its primary purpose or the context out of which it emerged. This part of your pitch should unfold from the attention-getter device.

QUESTIONS AND CLAIMS

This is when you articulate your claims about the ideologies and strategies found within the artifact and formulate further interesting questions you might ask of the piece with regard to its rhetorical practices and strategies.

THE BROADER CONTEXT

Here, you identify the broader context in which we can situate this piece in terms of ideologies of civic life, the rhetorical strategies it deploys, or other similar issues or campaigns to which you can connect this artifact. It might make sense here to explain how you will approach your rhetorical analysis paper, which depends on widening the lens of your analysis.

THE CLOSER

Let your audience know why you think this analysis will be fruitful or relevant and ask a specific question or two to help garner useful feedback. And, as always, say “Thank You” to close.